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Technology Stocks : Cymer (CYMI)

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To: Crossy who wrote (1851)	9/13/1997 1:56:00 PM
From: jimbob9	of 25960

I would like to offer a (hopefully) enlightening summary of the impact of the EUV project and what it means for cymer. I did my Ph.D. in the type of system that JMAR is now developing so I am somewhat familiar with the technical side. First, let me state the obvious: cymer manufactures a laser which is used as a light source in stepper systems. The fundamental departure that occurs with the EUV and JMAR systems is that the laser is no longer the light source it is now an energy source for pumping the light source. When you focus an intense pulse from a laser onto a surface (a metal target for instance) you create a small amount of material that is so hot (plasma) that it starts to emit light at wavelengths which are much shorter than the laser itself. The EUV project is based on using a TRW supplied laser to heat a target to a certain temperature where extreme ultraviolet radiation (EUV) is optimally emitted. If you use a much more intense laser pulse you get much shorter wavelengths (x-rays) emitted from the plasma. This is what JMAR is doing. In 1992 my research showed that a picosecond KrF laser pulse could be converted to x-rays with substantial efficiency (10%). This is the process that JMAR is attempting to commercialize. Cymer could have (presumably) participated in the consortium in the capacity of supplier of lasers to act as the pump source. However, the reliability of excimer systems in relation to diode pumped solid state (DPSS) lasers is not good. In the long run DPSS lasers will likely dominate many markets for lasers. THe creation of the EUV consortium indicates a clear committment by major players in US industry to a choice of EUV radiation systems instead of x-ray lithography. The problem with EUV is making mirrors so that you can focus the light and make it do what you want in terms of imaging. The coating process for making mirrors is very sensitive and allows no room for error. There are a host of other technical problems that go along with EUV but I won't bore you with details. I believe cymer has a window of 2-5 years to make money off the KrF and ArF systems for steppersand then some other source (EUV, x-ray, ion beam, etc.) will startto make it's way into the market. I should point out that IBM has developed an x-ray process and I think they have demonstrated a 1 G DRAM but they are using a synchrotron to make x-rays. This is too expensive for most companies and that is why there is a niche for JMAR to make a smaller cheaper source of x-rays. In the near term I am very bullish on CYMI but I think that komatsu and lambda physik may provide some stiff competition because the key to KrF and ArF laser markets is lifetime and reliability. The reason I am bullish on CYMI is that they know this and they are ahead of the others and the demand for DUV sources is very real. jimbob9

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